Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary Mixtures

This paper follows on from an earlier publication on high-blend-rate binary gasoline-alcohol mixtures and reports results for some equivalent ternary fuels from several investigation streams. In the present work, new findings are presented for high-load operation in a dedicated boosted multi-cylinde...

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Main Authors: James W. G. Turner, Andrew G. J. Lewis, Sam Akehurst, Chris J. Brace, Sebastian Verhelst, Jeroen Vancoillie, Louis Sileghem, Felix C. P. Leach, Peter P. Edwards
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-12-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/23/6390
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author James W. G. Turner
Andrew G. J. Lewis
Sam Akehurst
Chris J. Brace
Sebastian Verhelst
Jeroen Vancoillie
Louis Sileghem
Felix C. P. Leach
Peter P. Edwards
author_facet James W. G. Turner
Andrew G. J. Lewis
Sam Akehurst
Chris J. Brace
Sebastian Verhelst
Jeroen Vancoillie
Louis Sileghem
Felix C. P. Leach
Peter P. Edwards
author_sort James W. G. Turner
collection DOAJ
description This paper follows on from an earlier publication on high-blend-rate binary gasoline-alcohol mixtures and reports results for some equivalent ternary fuels from several investigation streams. In the present work, new findings are presented for high-load operation in a dedicated boosted multi-cylinder engine test facility, for operation in modified production engines, for knock performance in a single-cylinder test engine, and for exhaust particulate emissions at part load using both the prototype multi-cylinder engine and a separate single-cylinder engine. The wide variety of test engines employed have several differences, including their fuel delivery strategies. This range of engine specifications is considered beneficial with regard to the “drop-in fuel” conjecture, since the results presented here bear out the contention, already established in the literature, that when specified according to the known ternary blending rules, such fuels fundamentally perform identically to their binary equivalents in terms of engine performance, and outperform standard gasolines in terms of efficiency. However, in the present work, some differences in particulate emissions performance in direct-injection engines have been found at light load for the tested fuels, with a slight increase in particulate number observed with higher methanol contents than lower. A hypothesis is developed to explain this result but in general it was found that these fuels do not significantly affect PN emissions from such engines. As a result, this investigation supplies further evidence that renewable fuels can be introduced simply into the existing vehicle fleet, with the inherent backwards compatibility that this brings too.
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spelling doaj.art-96e94257b78a457db102eae6fef26c722023-11-20T23:22:41ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732020-12-011323639010.3390/en13236390Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary MixturesJames W. G. Turner0Andrew G. J. Lewis1Sam Akehurst2Chris J. Brace3Sebastian Verhelst4Jeroen Vancoillie5Louis Sileghem6Felix C. P. Leach7Peter P. Edwards8Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset BA2 7AY, UKInstitute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset BA2 7AY, UKInstitute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset BA2 7AY, UKInstitute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, University of Bath, Bath, Somerset BA2 7AY, UKDepartment of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Campus UFO, Ghent University, T4, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent, BelgiumDepartment of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Campus UFO, Ghent University, T4, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent, BelgiumDepartment of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Campus UFO, Ghent University, T4, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Gent, BelgiumDepartments of Chemistry and Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UKDepartments of Chemistry and Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UKThis paper follows on from an earlier publication on high-blend-rate binary gasoline-alcohol mixtures and reports results for some equivalent ternary fuels from several investigation streams. In the present work, new findings are presented for high-load operation in a dedicated boosted multi-cylinder engine test facility, for operation in modified production engines, for knock performance in a single-cylinder test engine, and for exhaust particulate emissions at part load using both the prototype multi-cylinder engine and a separate single-cylinder engine. The wide variety of test engines employed have several differences, including their fuel delivery strategies. This range of engine specifications is considered beneficial with regard to the “drop-in fuel” conjecture, since the results presented here bear out the contention, already established in the literature, that when specified according to the known ternary blending rules, such fuels fundamentally perform identically to their binary equivalents in terms of engine performance, and outperform standard gasolines in terms of efficiency. However, in the present work, some differences in particulate emissions performance in direct-injection engines have been found at light load for the tested fuels, with a slight increase in particulate number observed with higher methanol contents than lower. A hypothesis is developed to explain this result but in general it was found that these fuels do not significantly affect PN emissions from such engines. As a result, this investigation supplies further evidence that renewable fuels can be introduced simply into the existing vehicle fleet, with the inherent backwards compatibility that this brings too.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/23/6390alcoholsgasoline-alcohol blendsternary blendsrenewable fuelse-fuels
spellingShingle James W. G. Turner
Andrew G. J. Lewis
Sam Akehurst
Chris J. Brace
Sebastian Verhelst
Jeroen Vancoillie
Louis Sileghem
Felix C. P. Leach
Peter P. Edwards
Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary Mixtures
Energies
alcohols
gasoline-alcohol blends
ternary blends
renewable fuels
e-fuels
title Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary Mixtures
title_full Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary Mixtures
title_fullStr Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary Mixtures
title_full_unstemmed Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary Mixtures
title_short Alcohol Fuels for Spark-Ignition Engines: Performance, Efficiency, and Emission Effects at Mid to High Blend Rates for Ternary Mixtures
title_sort alcohol fuels for spark ignition engines performance efficiency and emission effects at mid to high blend rates for ternary mixtures
topic alcohols
gasoline-alcohol blends
ternary blends
renewable fuels
e-fuels
url https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/23/6390
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